In the UK (and, I believe, most of the EU), a car license can optionally include a motorcycle license and the cost is the same whether or not you tick the relevant box, so there's no reason not to get a license for motorcycles and cars when you apply for one for cars.

Yes, he's wrong. If you have a driving licence, you automatically "have" a provisional driving licence, which means you can drive a moped without supervision. For about 10 years, to drive a motorbike you still have to pass the CBT (cumpolsory basic training) test to be allowed to ride a low power motorbike. From passing the CBT, you have 2 years to take a proper bike test or you have to redo the CBT.

Some states require it, others just have age restrictions in a tiered scheme based on HP.i.e....>10 yrs for 14 yrs for 16 yrs for >25 HP

Other states require taking a boater safety class, typically 8 hours in one or two sessions and coast guard approved, but no actual license from the state (i.e. road tax/water tax). Some states require a safety course for some bodies of water and a license (tax) for others. NJ is one example. The license (tax) simply requires taking a boater safety class and paying th

I hold a driver's license for a car, but the documents I hold for operating boats and airplanes are "Certificates". The State of New Hampshire requires me to hold a "Safe Boating Certificate" (evidence of successful safety training) while operating a boat of more than 20 Horsepower. The FAA does not issue pilot's licenses, but rather certifies that I have been "found to be properly qualified to exercise the privileges" of a pilot.

When I was doing my flight training one of the instructors was a 17 year old kid who had gotten his CFI and hadn't gotten his drivers license yet. For the lessons he gave his mom or dad was driving him to the airport:).

His dad was also a flight instructor and I did about half my training with him and half with the son. I'm sure the kid was mostly just building hours for a planned career, but he was actually a good pilot and gave some different insight versus his dad.

He may have been 18 but I could have sworn he was 17. I know for a fact that he was still in high school when I started my training. The examiner didn't see anything out of the ordinary when I took my checkride though.

But how does that philosophy bear out against the overwhelming power of human stupidity? In my mind, there is an event horizon of stupidity, past which we dare not go. Prior permission, while statist and somewhat morally wrong, does mitigate the potential for damage caused by (to some degree) the atrociously dumb, the horrendously immature, and the just-plain-retarded (I'm using Christopher Titus's definition here). While no single or combined force on the planet can ever permanently eradicate or prevent st

The option None - Why should I need permission? is a strange way of putting it. It implies that I am using a vehicle needing a license without having the license. The only vehicle that I use is a (pedal powered) bicycle. No need for any license there:-)

Not necessarily a hipster, just someone who doesn't live in the USA. Here it's much easier to get around with a bike than a car and given the difference in cost, there's no real incentive to own a car. I've never got a driving license because owning a car has never seemed useful anywhere that I've lived.

"OOP is an exceptionally bad idea which could only have originated in California" — Edsger Dijkstra

Shame he didn't pay a bit more attention: Alan Kay was in Utah (Salt Lake City) when he came up with the idea.

Same here. The city is relatively compact, with good public transportation networks (subway, tramway, bus) and owning a car is optional. Of course, many people do own cars but I simply see no good reason to add to all the pollution.

Not necessarily a hipster, just someone who doesn't live in the USA. Here it's much easier to get around with a bike than a car and given the difference in cost, there's no real incentive to own a car. I've never got a driving license because owning a car has never seemed useful anywhere that I've lived.

Nah, a real hipster would have bragged about not owning a TV without being prompted.

Here's a question for you: What do you think of the concept of requiring bicycle operators to get a license before allowing them to ride on public streets? Personally, I like it, since it puts them on more of an equal footing with automobile operators, at least in the legal sense.

Here's a question for you: What do you think of the concept of requiring bicycle operators to get a license before allowing them to ride on public streets? Personally, I like it, since it puts them on more of an equal footing with automobile operators, at least in the legal sense.

I wouldn't object to it, but I'd be much more in favour of extending the requirement that drivers wanting to use the public highway must have third-party liability insurance (apparently this isn't a requirement in the US?) to cyclists. The main purpose of needing a license for a car is that you can easily cause serious injury to others if you drive badly. This is less of a concern for cyclists, but it is still relatively easy to cause an accident that will cause property damage (for example, getting hit

I wouldn't object to it, but I'd be much more in favour of extending the requirement that drivers wanting to use the public highway must have third-party liability insurance (apparently this isn't a requirement in the US?)

Varies from state to state. I know my state, MO, requires it, but LA does not (which makes me never want to drive in Louisiana. EVER.)

Personally I'm the same way. Can't be bothered to get my car license. I had a license, but didn't get the full license because in Ontario it takes a at least full 2 years and 2 driving tests to get your full license. Since I wasn't living at home by the time my second driving test came around, and hadn't driven in a while, I let my license expire, and haven't bothered to get it renewed. I really do mean to get on with it, but I'm pretty sure I have to do the whole 2 year waiting period all over again bec

in that it isn't handled by a government agency, but private organizations. In the US, HPR certification can be obtained through the National Association of Rocketry (NAR), or the Tripoli Rocketry Association (TRA).

Like SCUBA diving, you will have a difficult time finding suppliers who will sell you certain critical supplies/equipment without seeing your credentials. For HPR, the controlled items are the rocket motors themselves. Any motors larger than a "G" class require high power certification to purchas

In the United States, at least, having a drivers license is no indication that you know the basic rules of the road, anything about traffic laws, ability to operate a vehicle, or possession of basic common sense.

Drivers licenses exist, at this point, exclusively to track and catalog every member of our society. And I don't like it.

Not going to say anything about the other two, but I think that most people who have a license do at least know the rules/laws related to driving. Willingness to follow them at the expense of getting somewhere a couple minutes later or being unable to stay connected to their friends for the duration of the trip is another thing entirely.

I would go with "knew" the rules of the road. They forgot them as soon as they passed the test. That's generally true of any automotive drivers license though, not just the US. If you asked most people to pass the driving test again a year later, I'm willing to put money on the majority failing to pass.

I don't know what state you live in, but here in California you have to pass a test on the rules of the road and the state's traffic laws. And, in order to get your first license, you have to prove that you actually know how to drive a car safely. Not just maneuver around an artificial course, but out on the road, in real traffic.

I moved to California from the UK a few years back and frankly, the CA driving test is a joke compared to the UK test. I didn't have to do any reversing, I was not tested on any maneuvers (3 point turn, parallel parking, etc...), and I passed the written component having only done the sample tests on the dmv website. For the UK theory test (identical in style to the written component of the CA test, but done on a computer) you have to know things like average braking distances for a typical car at 10mph speed increments from 20mph to 70mph. Might see a bit less tailgating and fewer multi-car pileups if CA drivers knew those numbers.

I was not tested on any maneuvers (3 point turn, parallel parking, etc...)

If so, it's been dumbed down considerably since I took it in the late '60s. I think that the first step down that slippery slope was having drivers parallel park between plastic posts, not real cars, because how you judge when to start your turn isn't the same as in Real Life. As far as the written test goes, I don't know. The last few times I've had to renew, I was told that I didn't have to take it because my record was clean

That's funny. Every single thing you list as lacking I had to do for my driver's test--in real traffic, and the written, just like you, was one on a computer, including the braking distances.

In terms of accidents, the UK is indeed the best, but Canada, the US, and most of northern Europe are right up there, too. You just don't want to get caught driving in Turkey or Egypt, where the chances of death are astronomically higher.

But I hear ya. It's hard to expect kids to be taught about braking distances in a country that doesn't require one to be able to read and write in any language (let alone English) in order to vote. Requiring literacy and knowledge is racist, fascist, imperialist, elitist, and several other ists as well.

Might see a bit less tailgating and fewer multi-car pileups if CA drivers knew those numbers.

Or not. The problem on the roads where I see the most tailgating is that there simply isn't enough space for drivers to maintain recommended tailing distance at the common driving speed. Instead, the drivers have learned to reduce their tailing distance and watch more than one car ahead, which works remarkably well. The number of accidents is actually pretty small when you consider the number of vehicle miles dri

There is always enough space to maintain a braking distance, the traffic may just have to travel a little slower. The only issue I've seen with it is drivers cutting each other off because they don't understand braking distances or how to safely maneuver between lanes. I manage to maintain safe braking distances, I probably just average 5 mph slower than the traffic around me, which in reality is the result of matching speed with the car in front of me, then having to slow down when somebody gets between us

When I got my first license (in MA, USA) I had to do a road-test. But I took that test during high school, so maybe the road test requirement is based on age, or based it being my first license, etc.

When I got my second (WA, USA) I had to do a paper (well, computer) test but no road test. It did kinda weird me out at the time, but I'm guessing that since most people drive pretty much continuously after getting their license it would mostly irritate people to have to re-demonstrate skills they've alread

I passed all the braking distance questions on my theory test, but now remember none of those numbers, as they meant nothing to me other than a list of numbers in the first place. You learn how far you need to brake your car by trying the brakes and getting a feel for it. I had a subaru legacy estate that could stop on a dime, but stopping a Delorean is like trying to stop a bike by putting your feet on the ground.

1. What do you select for one terrestrial and one non-terrestrial license?

2. Motorcycle license in US is not a separate document. It's an endorsement on the general purpose driving license, just like certain other types of heavier vehicles etc.

3. There is no "boat license" in general in US for recreational boating. Some states started requiring "safe boating" course from younger operators in recent years, but that's by no means universal. Aside from that, anyone can get as big a boat as they can afford and

Warships still have to follow the Rules of the Sea, [wikipedia.org] but it's not the helmsman's job to know or apply them. One of the bridge officers is said to "have the helm," and is expected to give the proper orders. Steering a ship, especially by compass, takes practice, because you have to turn in the direction opposite to what the compass needle's doing; if you turn in the direction it's moving, you just get farther off course. (That is, if the needle's moving off to starboard, the ship is actually turning to por

Why in the world wouldn't you change clothes? I bike 5 miles to and from work and I have two bike bags for all my stuff-- one holds all my clothes, deodorant, etc. and the other holds my locks and repair tools (most frequently used to help other cyclists). On the hot days (remember-- I live in Southern California), I can build up a small sweat on the way to the office, so I cruise for the last mile and try to sit upright to get as much breeze as possible. I go to the restroom to change, rinse off my face an

I change clothes when I get to work tool. What I wonder about, is people think that only cyclists would sweat. When it's 36 C outside, doing anything will make you sweat. Taking the bus or driving your own car won't stop that. You'll be dripping in sweat by the time you walk from the back of the parking lot to the office building.

There are some places where it's quite easy to do, actually, and I'm not surprised at all. Over here, I'd probably do it all summer long (assuming I could actually ride a bike, since buses are few and far between), but the winter? Fuck that. I need a car to get from home to the bus station approximately 5 minutes away. It's dumb, but I'm not walking in -10C and below weather for an hour only to then have an additional hour and a half of public transportation.

1. Australian C class drivers license (for vehicles with a GVT of 4.5 tons or under, not restricted to vehicles with an automatic transmission).
2. Western Australian Motor Vehicle Driver Instructor License (MVDIL, I teach others how not to kill themselves behind the wheel).
3. Category B and H firearms licenses.

At one time I had amateur and commercial radio licenses and was also licensed to operate 35 mm movie projectors. Wanted to get the commercial radiotelegraphy license but that meant spending 2 years at sea first.

Is someone trying to be smart here? Was this suppose to be a "Conjunction Fallacy"? If I have a license for each air and land then I can't really answer truthfully with the given options. I could pick either single license option, I guess, but then you aren't really getting accurate results of license possession.

... I have an old car, with an expired examintation sticker on the windshield, parked in a side street ( I live on a main street ). Once in a while, the police will notice it, and stick a fine under the windshield wiper ( € 55 ). I only use the car for getting booze late in the evening from the local petrol station. Total cost is less than if I had it examined each year. Don't get me started on equipping it, in the winter, with the "winter tyres" obligatory here. I guesstimate that it will take another

Public transit, walking, bikes, none of this requires license. I feel worrysome that the implication that you must have a car as almost the default option, some cities are not built expressely for cars, people work from home or don't need to travel a lot. Walking and biking is also healthier both for you and for the ones around you, and public transportation (where is good enough, at least) is a more efficient way to move around to middle to long distances in the few times you must use them.

Depends on the state, but there are generally at least two additional endorsements; One is for school busses and the like, called an "Intermediate License," and the other is for "combinations" called a "CDL" that entitles you drive semis (tractor + trailer(s)).

Motorcycle licenses used to be a single license, then they changed it based on cc's of the engine so that a license for a 55cc would not qualify you to drive a 1200cc, but this was changed back to a single license when the stats showed it didn't make